My New Job: The Flower Girl

This week I began a new job at the Royal Beach.

Flower Selfie!

But before I continue, a little backstory: I had been working for a week in the VIP lounge at the hotel until the doctor told me I had a stress fracture in my right foot. I rested for a week and then hooray - my program coordinator found me a new job that is less demanding for the legs. I am back to work! Though it's a different kind of work...

I now work in the flower studio at the Royal Beach. We are a back-of-house team, which means we have zero interactions with the guests. There are only two or three of us working at a time so I have already gotten to know my two wonderful trainers quite well.

Gale made Aliyah more than 30 years ago from England and Ruti is a native Israeli. They are both very warm and maternal, constantly reminding me I should be sitting more. They are wonderful teachers in the art of floral design.

I love my new job! This is what I see every day:

A panoramic view of the work counter inside the flower studio.

Yesterday was only my second day and already they let me make arrangements from roses!

Before... (that green sponge is about to disappear!)

After!

Here's another one I did! Made from the same kind of roses lying on the counter.

Making the arrangements is quite therapeutic. It almost is like putting together a puzzle, only the puzzle has about six different dimensions - appearance, smell, cleanliness, size, feel, age (probably I am leaving something out...).

It is also nice to be learning something new, outside of the hospitality umbrella. And though the change is refreshing, I do miss service. To me there is nothing more satisfying than seeing the smile on a guest's face after you have made him or her feel cared-for. 

Eventually after my foot heals I think I will probably return to service, but for now I am so happy to be the newest flower girl at the Royal Beach! Who knows, maybe this'll even add a line to my resume... My flower mentors say that if you have the skills to work with flowers you can get a job anywhere in the world.

Ruti making a beautiful arrangement for [I think?] the lobby. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of Gale... yet! ;) 

I am amazed by all of the arrangements we make for the hotel. I don't think I have ever stayed in a hotel with such nice vegetation. Where do all of these bouquets and vases go? Every single room in the hotel gets at least one arrangement, some get three, some get more.

Another nice thing about my new job is that I don't have to wear a uniform - though I'm not sure if it actually is nice because it takes me longer to get ready when I have to decide what to wear ;) And not to mention more laundry for me :'(

I am excited to see what is to come in this new job and hope every day brings something new and beautiful.

Thank You to the Good People :)

I have a stress fracture in my right foot. The doctor found it on an X-ray last week. Since my foot will not heal for a month I've had to literally take a step back.

I didn't want to post a blog without a photo... so here is one of the subject matter!

In the couple weeks where I've been less than mobile I've really felt the warmth of other people. It is now time to acknowledge everyone for reminding me that people are good.

Thank you to:

Maîlyss, my French friend, who taught me to play the French card game Tarot, something I can do while sitting. If you hadn't invited me to play cards those few nights I would have been stuck in my apartment unsuccessfully trying to find a bootlegged version of Mockingjay online.

Ruslan, my French-Ukrainian friend who the other day carried not only my groceries from the grocery store to our apartment, but also his own. You saved me from making a whole other trip to the store by the amount of items you carried for me.

Dana, my Israeli vegan work friend who came to visit me where I live after hearing the news that I was injured. You made me feel really special, venturing all the way out to Beit Isrotel just to see little old me!

Raluca, my Romanian friend, who asked if she could run any errands for me. Thank you also for walking in the back with me and for the halva on my birthday :)

Scott, my American friend, who helped me up the hill in the park when we had a group activity. Without you there would have been no hope for me to get up that Everest-like mound!

My parents for putting up with my 73,324,723,023,443 phone calls. I bet you only really do it because you have to :]

Li, my birthright tourguide who I saw the other day, for offering special healing to my foot. Your positive energy lifted up my day!

My roommates, for checking in periodically to see how I am doing. Thanks guys!

To random people in passing for asking me why I am limping, recognizing that I am not okay. You, in particular, remind me that people are inherently good and we all have the power to make another person's day. 

To Rami, my program leader, for arranging a new job for me so that I can continue in the program. Thank you, a lot! I know it would have been easier to take "no" for an answer from the higher ups but you found away to make it work for me.

To Carmen, my ulpan teacher, for teaching me the Hebrew words for "broken" and "clinic." Even when I am stuttering over words that I didn't know existed a few days ago you are determined to cement them into my brain.

To everyone else on my program whose name wasn't specifically mentioned, for continuing to check in with me and make sure I am still alive. Robyn, Kitty, Dakota, Kostia, Maksym, Perla and Dima.

When you are in another country it's hard to feel like you have anyone that cares about you, especially when you do not have family around. Each and every small offering of help and well wishes has meant the world to me and though this isn't even the most serious injury in the world, it's no picnic either.

(Also - I would be a terrible American if I submitted this post without mentioning that Thanksgiving was yesterday... Happy Thanksgiving everyone!)

With that, Shabbat Shalom ya'll!

What to Do When You're Bored

In the past few days I feel I have truly become an expert on how to fill hours in which you are forced to be sedentary. While I would much rather be exploring the city or working in my new job, I am stuck at home with a bad foot...

If you ever find yourself trapped in the same boat (hopefully not), here are 10 things you can do to help occupy your time:

1) Annoy your closest relatives with likes and comments on either old or embarrassing pictures/ posts on Facebook.

2) Find a movie to watch that epitomizes the downward spiral that is Shannon Doherty's acting career. Warning: it will be highly nap-inducing.

3) Become friends with your shoes! (That's Harry on the left, and Sally on the right.)

4) Learn the magic of Osem soup packets! It doesn't quite look like the picture but it sure does taste like the stuff of powdery goodness I've read about on other Israel blogs...

5) Catch up on all those dumb TV shows you wouldn't otherwise have time for :) And also discover that neither HuluPlus nor HBOgo work outside of the US :( So much for catching up on Blackish...

6) Learn how to grow an avocado tree. Yes, this is definitely useful knowledge to have so don't question it! Just watch.

7) Rediscover the greatness of Beyonce.

8) Pester your roommates nonstop about what they did all day in an effort to live vicariously through them:

9) Eat almost all of your food and then realize you didn't plan well enough for your resting time because all you have left to eat is a can of peas and a mango... great... now I have to interrupt the resting and go to the store...

10) Attempt to learn a foreign language by trying to decipher the characters in your doctor's note. Wait... when am I supposed to return to work?

By the time you have completed this list you will realize that people in America are finally waking up and you can now harass everyone you know overseas on Skype!

Going to the Doctor in Israel

Well... my right foot started hurting a bit more than a week ago. Like any other stubborn human being, I told myself to ignore it. It's not like my knees are hurting, foot pain will go away - I don't need to rest. Two morning jogs later, and it got a lot worse. It hurt to do anything, at all. Having a job where I am always on my feet did not make anything better.

After some good old Google research I decided that I probably had a small stress fracture in my foot. But without an x-ray of any sort I couldn't really be sure what it was.

So what was a girl to do? After a couple days I came to my senses and decided to ask my program leader to coordinate for me a visit to a doctor here in Israel. For me this was a last resort - I hate more than anything to be restricted and I knew a doctor would probably tell me I needed to be off my feet and rest. Not knowing when the next time I will be able to go for a leisurely walk or jog is a terrible feeling. I can't imagine how people who are wheelchair-bound cope.

But the worst part is not working for two days. I had just gotten over my streak of boredom after not working for more than a month. This was the last thing I wanted.

Now, for the nitty gritty on the actual visit:

I had a 12:30 p.m. appointment with a Dr. Sergei. My bus to the clinic was running about 10 minutes late so in turn I was a few minutes late to my appointment. To the clinic in I walked and was immediately unsure of what to do. All instructive lettering was in Hebrew with the exception of a poster on the wall advertising for some kind of prescription drug.

Immediately I turned to the most maternal-looking person in the room and asked her if she spoke English. She told me I needed to get a ticket (and helped me get one since the machine was all in Hebrew) and then to wait until they called my number.

If you have an appointment you shouldn't have to take a number... what's the point of having an appointment?

About 10 minutes later my number was called. "Do you speak English," I asked the woman at the reception desk. She told me there is a special clinic at another location where they treat English speakers and that I was in the wrong place but that if I waited 20 minutes they would send for a doctor from said other clinic. This did not seem right to me. I felt a little segregated for some reason... I still haven't fully deciphered the emotion.

So I go reclaim my chair in the waiting area and about 30 minutes later the woman calls me back. She pulls my name back up in the computer database and goes, "It looks like you have an appointment at 12:30 p.m." I thought to myself, DUH woman! But instead what came out was, "Yes, it is with Dr. Sergei, an orthopedist, for my foot." I already told you this the first time I came to your desk! She replied, "You are an hour late, here, go to the waiting area for exam room four," and handed me another ticket. I wouldn't have been so late if I had been able to sign in for the appointment when I first arrived! Also.. looking back.. she never explained why I wasn't seeing the special doctor who she earlier had said was coming specially for me.

Anyway... I waited another 15 minutes to see the doctor who ended up not being Dr. Sergei. Dr. Galina is an Israeli woman probably in her 60s with a slightly rough tone to her voice. There is not much else I have to say about her. We spent all of five minutes together. She wrote me two prescriptions- one for an ointment and another for anti-inflammatory pills. She also told me to rest for three days and if the problem persists to come back. She did not provide any sort of diagnosis or attempt to determine with me the cause.

Later when I went to the pharmacy I had to get yet another number from a machine to wait in line. Today I felt like I was literally just a number all day...

All in all, as a foreigner in a country where you do not speak the official language, I do not recommend visiting the doctor alone (or at all if avoidable). The visit was a lot more stressful than it needed to be. But at least I am well prepared in case there is a next time!

(As I write this post the affected foot has't made contact with the ground for about four hours. I'm not exactly sure how showering is going to work, but I do love a good challenge ;)

I Work at the Royal Beach Hotel

Two days so far I have spent working in the hotel industry in Eilat. For those of you who do not know, Eilat is Israel's resort town. The beach is lined with hotel after hotel and the almost-year-round beach weather brings in many tourists from all over Israel, Russia, France and many other countries. 

The program I am on has a partnership with the Isrotel hotel chain where the participants of my program work in the hotels. The hotel where I am working is the Royal Beach. Many Eilat-ians have told me that the Royal Beach is the most luxurious of Isrotel's nine hotels in Eilat. I work in the VIP lounge, or in Hebrew: the טרקלין (tarkleen). 

Only guests who are staying in special suites or who have paid an extra fee have access to the tarkleen. The tarkleen is open from 11:00 a.m. until 9:00 p.m. There is an all-you-can-eat buffet that is changed four times throughout the day. In keeping with with the laws of kashrut the buffet is pescetarian (there are milk and fish but no other meats). 

In my two days of work most of the guests who have come into the tarkleen have been either Israeli or French, with a small sprinkling of Russians, British people and one man from Switzerland who had nearly accent-less English. Usually the guests approach me with their queries in Hebrew and 90% of the time I have no idea what they're saying. Nearly everyone is able to speak English though. The guests have been very patient with me when I try to practice my Hebrew on them. A lot of the Israeli guests tell me there are too many problems in Israel and don't understand why I came here.

In terms of the work I am not exactly a waitress. I do not take any orders since the tarkleen employs a self-serve buffet. Most of the time I am either bussing tables, polishing silverware or chinaware, or restocking miscellaneous items. Because of my prior experience in the food service biz, it was very easy for me to jump right in. The concept of hospitality here is almost the same, but the company culture is quite different. In order not to violate either company's confidentiality, all I will say is that to me it seems the work culture in Israel is a bit more laid back. I haven't decided yet whether I like it or not. At times it can be a smidgeon bit frustrating. 

The tarkleen usually has three of us "waitresses" working the room at one time, and an additional person is stationed at a desk at the entry to assist VIP guests with checking into the hotel and to ensure guests are properly clothed prior to entering the room. This additional person is called the "secretary." Maybe if I can get my Hebrew up to a higher par I can earn this role before my time in the program expires!

Working alongside me, my trainer Dana coincidentally is also a vegan. When I discovered this it was such a feeling of relief. FINALLY - another person who gets it! I am not alone anymore :) She tells me which foods in the work cafeteria are vegan and helps me with my Hebrew.

My vegan buddy Dana with one of the chefs!

It has been great to finally begin working and I am beginning to actually feel immersed in Israeli life. Maybe soon I will be able to help every guest only in Hebrew!

Random Pictures Round Up #1

Here are some pictures that I took with a purpose and want to share with the world. No need for further elaboration. A picture is worth a thousand words, enjoy!

I pass by these almost daily on my walk into the main part of town. I have no idea what they are!!! Anyone have any ideas?

Quality graffiti spotted in Eilat.

I do not remember the entire story but I will try my best to summarize: Enemy nations/ groups have boats with these containers filled with weapons. The enemies themselves sink the boats- on purpose. These groups send divers to release a tab from the weapons containers that allow them to float to the top of the sea. They then retrieve the tanks and use the weapons to attack Israel.

This is what FRESH dates look like! Picked them up from the shuk :) Nice and juicy though not as sweet and chewy as dried dates.

A kibbutz worker is clipping branches from a date palm tree. Dates are the "gold" of Israel, they bring in more revenue than any other fruit.

A high-five goes to the first person who can guess what is being farmed here!

That fort is on Jordanian soil, you can see how close we go the the Jordanian border during our visit to Kibbutz Eilot. 

A beautiful view from a BATHROOM STALL on our visit to a nature reserve around Kibbutz Eilot.

Visiting a spice factory we got a lesson on algae! Not sure what the connection was... a bit odd...

Flamingos! (That's what those white dots are!) Such beautiful creatures they are :)

A train chugging along on the boardwalk in Eilat. Let's go for a ride!

An ice rink INSIDE a mall in Eilat!

A husband-and-wife-owned-and-opereated restaurant five minutes from where I live. They made me a customized vegan pad thai! They have been together for 27 years and met in the army.

The traffic circle: a pedestrian's heaven on Earth

Constantly I find myself comparing Israel to the U.S. Most individuals who move to a new place would probably also compare their new homes to their formers. Good old America definitely wins in the ‘Bigger’ category, but there is not doubt that in my mind Israel gets first place in the ‘Intersection Efficiency and Innovation’ category.

More specifically what I am talking about is traffic circles.

The irony depicted in this picture - where to begin!!! It's as if the city went to an artist and said, we want you to design a  model for the circle at XYZ intersection that gets everyone involved in the joke of the stupidity of traffic lights. And hey - let's also not neglect to mention that my finger snuck into this picture. As I said, pedestrians ALWAYS have the right of way here! (I took this picture myself on my run this morning in Eilat.) y

If you were not already aware, Israel, in comparison the the U.S., hardly has any traffic lights. Instead the intersections are built around traffic circles. I’ve decided that the use of traffic circles to direct the flow of traffic is a lot more sensical for three main reasons:

1 - Going, going, going. Everyone is constantly going. It's much more fair to everyone involved in the intersection. Traffic circles provide the right of the way to whoever comes first. This way, you’re not stuck at an intersection wondering how many more minutes before the light turns green. And it’s bad enough if you’re trying to make a left and you are behind a long line of cars. You may have to wait for a few different cycles of lights to make that sanctified left turn. In Israel, there’s no waiting, you just go! 

2 - Power outage? No problem! I can’t tell you just how many times the power has gone out in and around my parents’ house in Rockville, Md. Way too many to count. Most of the time a few, if not many, traffic lights go out as well. Usually this’ll happen in summer after a big thunderstorm, or perhaps in winter after a big snowstorm. Heck - it even happens in fall and summer. And since there is no electricity flowing to the lights, they don't even flash red lights to indicate to cars that they need to stop. Instead the intersection inherits imaginary stop signs and every car must stop before proceeding through the intersection. If the power goes out in Israel, no problem! The traffic circles are not affected since they do not require a single volt of electricity. Motor vehicle life can continue as normal. (And more dollars/ shekels are saved since there is no need to hire personnel to direct the flow of traffic.)

3 - Win/ win for walkers ;-) I know I said the traffic circles help cars to continue going, going and going, but… there is one exception to this: pedestrians! As a pedestrian (most of the time, anyway) in Israel myself, I LOVE traffic circles. I can go for longer runs and not have to wait, idiotically jogging in place, for the ‘WALK’ light to commence its flashing. I can just go! I feel so powerful! The cars have to stop for little old me :) It’s like I can stop traffic solely with my presence. You also don’t have to factor in wait times for crossing the street if you are in a hurry to get somewhere. You’re only obstacle to getting to your destination in time is your own pace. 

Now after nearly finishing writing this post I am remembering my long walk through Tel Aviv and how the city has MANY traffic lights. So instead of internalizing this entry in your brain as a summary of intersections in the State of Israel, you can instead internalize it as a summary of intersections in the City of Eilat.

I find the infrastructure here quite fascinating and hope to babble some more later on other road/ water/ energy - related topics. If you have any ideas or questions, let me know!

Learning to live life in Hebrew, and so the saga begins...

The official languages of Israel are Hebrew and Arabic. But here in Israel's resort city, Eilat, I've heard as much Russian as I have heard Hebrew.

I never would have imagined there would be this many native Russian language speakers here. Where did they all come from???! As big as Russia is, are there really no warm spots to take a holiday? Thanks to Google Maps I can see that in actuality there are not - wow!

Anyway... thus far in my program we have had three ulpan classes. What is this "ulpan" thing you ask! Ulpan is Hebrew school. But when I say Hebrew school it's not like the two-to-three-times-per-week religious classes you used to attend at your family's synagogue. It's more like the Spanish class you used to attend in middle school.

Ulpan is very interactive, modern and secular from biblical Hebrew. On our first day of ulpan we learned the word for drunk - מסטול (mah-stool).

Hebrew is a very cool language. It's like a puzzle. Almost every word receives some kind of conjugation when being used in conjunction with other words. There are feminine and masculine conjugations, singular and plural, and definite and indefinite.

One of the most challenging tasks [of being a new Hebrew speaker in Israel] is attempting to read signage throughout town. In English we use capital letters to mark a word as a proper noun. Since Hebrew only has one case, it has been near impossible to distinguish whether a word on a sign is a proper noun, like a place, or rather if it is just a word I have not yet learned.

This yellow banner reads: "Beit ochel Italki" - this means "Italian restaurant." I had to look up the word Italki. However if it had been capitalized I like to think that perhaps I would have been able to decipher the word's meaning on my own. (And let's not forget to note the sign's resemblance to my last name :-D)

I have been trying to force myself to speak Hebrew in lieu of English as much as possible. But let me tell you, in a country where most people speak better English than I do Hebrew it is an uphill battle. I have just learned the past tense, so I can now tell people what I used to do for work in the U.S. and where I used to live. If I had to guess I would say I probably speak Hebrew at the level of a 3-year-old child, if even that well.

By the end of the program my goal is to be able to eavesdrop on Hebrew phone conversations on the bus and to understand 90% of the dialogue. For now, my 20% will have to do ;)

A Hallo-WEAK night and Jerusalem

Just as the title of this post suggests, Halloween in Eilat was a bit lackluster. I wasn’t upset or saddened by this, it just did not meet my expectations. Next to nobody was in costume, my group aside. We went to Mike’s Place, an American-themed bar. Almost all the waitstaff were dressed in costumes but the patrons were not. 

We got a lot of stares and I had at least 15 people ask me what I was supposed to be. However it was quite obvious… wouldn’t you agree???

I am a pumpkin - DUH! Later on I added some twigs to my bun...

Prior to spending the night on the town we had our first Shabbat celebration together as a group. We built a table at the hotel where we have been eating and said the blessings with a local rabbi. Since we all have had pretty varied religious upbringings it was special to share the evening together. 

Raluca and Rami are missing from this picture :(

The next morning we set out on a bus to spend the day in Jerusalem. From Eilat the ride was about five hours (we did make two stops totalling to 50 minutes and went a longer route since the driver felt it would be safer for us not to drive through the West Bank). We shared the bus with another group that is posted in Eilat - a Russian-speaking group in which the participants are learning to become scuba instructors. Maybe if an English version of this program were offered I would have opted to learn the ins and outs of scuba! In another life…

After arrival to Jerusalem we headed to the old city and had a tour of the Jewish Quarter. I would have loved to have seen the other areas (mainly the Christian) as well so hopefully I will be able to make another trip to do that. Here are some pictures from the tour:

Getting an explanation from our tour guide of the different empires of Jerusalem

Underneath the city lies an even older city...

Meow!

See sign below.

You can see the old Jewish cemetery (the Mt. of Olives) in the background.

Along the way we got to meet the CEO of the provider that organized my program. Binyamin Halevi GanOr (that’s his name!) was an extremely sweet man and his English was impressive after having been studying for just one year. He shared with us a little bit of his background story as well as a personal struggle he has been facing the past three years. He is an inspirational person - he has neither an esophagus nor a stomach and has to sit up when going to sleep at night. Upon meeting him you would not believe it. He has a very relaxed and positive demeanor and is a high example for all to aspire.

He even gave us his personal phone number should we have any problems or just want to talk.

But a trip to Jerusalem with a tour group would not be complete without a visit to the Western Wall, so obviously we did that too! I had already been twice and made a conscious decision not to touch the wall. Instead I decided to look onto the men’s side of the divide. 

Men on left, women on right. From the photo, the two sides looks like they are of equal size however the mens side is probably about two times wider.

It bothers me that the men’s side is so much wider than the women’s side and that it has nicer chairs. Is this supposed to be a message to women that they as a gender are inferior to men?

From the old city we took the light rail to some kind of big conference center where we attended a concert/ceremony for all participants that are currently partaking in Masa programs in Israel. Brazilians, Argentinians, Russians, Australians, English, Canadians and the list goes on… 

The light rail was really cool!

The security at the event was the tightest I have ever witnessed preceding any event. Probably even stricter than at the 1996 Olympics. It makes sense considering the PRIME MINISTER of Israel came to speak to us! That’s right! Benjamin Netanyahu came to welcome us to his country and to ask that we defend Israel worldwide to people who are misinformed. We also got to see performances from one of Israel’s top music groups - the Idan Rachel project. Our guide says they are comparable to U2. I have heard of them and heard some of their music before but quickly got bored with the event.

Here is a snippet of Bibi's speech, the quality is not amazing (sorry):

The ceremony would have been great had we not already had behind us a five-hour bus ride and long day in Jerusalem. We were all a bit tired and just wanted to head home to Eilat. I slept the ENTIRE bus ride home, which, if you know me, is rare.

Goodbye for now :)

Welcome to Eilat (Paradise)

Let’s see, where did we last leave off? Oh yes! We were Eilat bound. And now Eilat we are!

I can’t believe I LIVE here. Eilat is BEAUTIFUL. The city has a very calm and serene energy that is unlike anything I have ever felt. Life here feels good. Thus far my expectations about Eilat have been wrong. Many Israelis and Americans told me prior to my arrival that Eilat is a lot like Las Vegas/ Atlantic City. This is definitely not the case.

Greetings from Paradise! Yes, those are my feet.

Eilat marina- I think that's Jordan in the distance?

Eilat has a population of approximately 50,000 people whereas Las Vegas has a population of just more than 600,000 people. Las Vegas is 12 TIMES the size of Eilat in population. How in the world would anyone try to compare the two!? You can walk from one side of Eilat to the other in an hour. 

To me, this is a good thing. I am glad that I am living in Eilat and not Tel Aviv, which is a bigger city, because of the small city feel here. Tel Aviv has a lot of American stores sprinkled around the city - car manufacturers, fast food chains, clothing retailers. In Eilat I feel more like I am in a foreign country. 

The weather is not as hot as I was expecting it to be. Where I am from (Washington, D.C.) 85-degree weather is HOT weather. We have humid summers in Washington whereas Eilat is very dry. In Eilat if the sun is stuck hiding behind a cloud it can feel quite cool, not matter the air temperature.

My group is living at Beit Isrotel (house of Isrotel). This building houses only the employees of the Israel hotel chain. There are many foreigners living alongside us, a lot of whom are not Jewish and just want to make some money. I live in a two-bedroom apartment with three other people. My roommates are from Georgia (the country), Florida and California. I would say we are pretty geographically diverse ;)

Life here is definitely more energy efficient. We have to push a button to heat the water a few minutes prior to showering. Every time we leave the apartment we are required to turn the air conditioning off. The toilet paper is less plush. The laundry machines aren't as plenty. 

Our building is situated on the outskirts of Eilat and as a result we have some junior mountains basically right in our backyard. From our balcony we can watch the sun set below the mountains. 

This is a panoramic view from my balcony.

The bedroom I live in is a bomb shelter. Every single unit in the building has its own bomb shelter. It feels like a normal room. The only thing special about it are the window and the door. Every time I enter or exit the room I feel like I am entering or exiting a vault. Not necessarily a bad thing!

A nice benefit of working for Isrotel is we are entitled to three free meals a day in one of the hotels. Let me tell you, for me, these meals are yummy :) Israel is such a vegan-friendly country, it doesn't even have to try. There are all kinds of fresh salads at every single meal - Israeli salad, cabbage salad, quinoa salad, lentil salad. I feel like I have died and gone to heaven. 

I cannot wait to begin work! In the next post we will celebrate Halloween and our first Shabbat as a group in Israel as well as visit Jerusalem! Lehitraot (means goodbye in Hebrew)!